This invention generally relates to mobile consumer communications devices and, particularly to, program applications which run on the mobile consumer communications device and communicate over the voice channel of the device.
The convenience of wireless communications has made cellular telephones ubiquitous. To take advantage of the popularity of cellular telephones, other mobile electronic devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and the like, have incorporated wireless communications capabilities so as to blur the definitions of these devices. As described herein, all such devices are referred to as mobile consumer communications devices to avoid confusion. When a particular type of mobile consumer communications devices is intended, then the specific term is used, e.g., cellular telephone, PDA, etc.
In any case, the convenience and functionality of mobile consumer communications devices have encouraged these devices to run more and more program applications. These applications are either standalone applications which are self-contained and do not communicate externally, or networked applications which require communication to other remote applications in order to work properly. Examples of standalone applications include single player games, such as Solitaire, and examples of networked applications include e-mail applications and multi-player games. Networked applications in one device can communicate to applications in other devices (peer communications) or may communicate to a central “server” application (client/server communications).
Mobile consumer communications devices use a variety of modes in data communication channels for networked applications. Among these modes are: IP/HTTP which allows the mobile device to access any Internet-based service, just as any desktop PC can; SMS which allows the mobile device to send/receive short text messages to/from peer human users, as well as to/from enterprise applications; MMS which allows the mobile device to send/receive multi-media messages, such as pictures, video and audio to/from peer human users, as well as to/from enterprise applications; and so forth. However, these data communication modes are distinct from the voice communications mode (i.e., the telephone), the voice channel over which consumers use to talk to others. In fact, the companies which provide the wireless communications, such as Cingular, T-Mobile, Verizon, etc., charge for the data communication services in addition to the cellular telephone services.
The present invention provides for a way for users to run networked applications on mobile consumer communications devices over the voice channel of the device. This not only allows users the benefits of networked application on mobile consumer communications devices with only voice service, but also gives mobile consumer communications devices with access to a data communications channel another pathway for networked applications.